A Message From Roots & Branches Boss Man

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A night of excellent music and upful vibes ...

although I'll be the first to admit the publicity should have been a lot more energetic - the 'select' audience received a fullest measure of quality roots music --- and every one of us loved it all

Spex + Truth ... maximum respect for the vintage selection - I must admit I love your music but I was worried the youngsters might get just a bit too contemporary - but in the event I didn't even need to turn on my iPod ... the band mentioned how much they liked the selection you played... Also, the easiest and nicest pair of DJs to deal with IN THE WHOLE WILD WORLD. I must also make special mention of the Roots Youth on the mic - who's name I forget - who kept the vibes and the message flowing constant in a positive & dignified style.

Thank you all very much - & welcome to the Roots & Branches something


Singers & Players of Instruments: All JAH springs are within thee

Dub Asante reign supreme in this arena ...


Cardiff... we have enough nice singers - we've got plenty of music roots and tradition ... but music is a funny thing and musicians can be funny people, bwoy ... but Dub Asante set up a solid foundation and each and every one of the support guests came through right on the night

Lee Bailey - a/k/a Bob Bailey & The Jailers - played a surprise solo set playing 'unplugged' piano versions of a handful of reggae classics including "Natty Dread" and "Right Time" ... I've known Lee for years, seen him playing in loads of bands - even played together - and this was one of his finer moments; revealing the extent of his musical talents

next up was the youth named Kent Ascension - representing a next generation carrying the carrying the reggae banner - Kent did a one-away chant of "Roots and Culture" over a most solid "World Jam Riddim" from Dub Asante ... as the Roots & Branches grow - more to come from Kent & Ascension brothers

next 'surprise' was a couple of real classics dusted off by the old broom ... to be honest, due to communications, 1 of the singers didn't get the full message about soundcheck/rehearsals and when I'd got back from sorting out some food for the band Drumtan called me onstage to run through a couple of 'simple' 2-chord tunes. We started with "My Conversation" and then "Freedom Street" (... Drums kindly advised me to 'stop shouting' on this 1 ...) ... it was a bit difficult having to focus on 'promoter's business' at the same time and I'll leave it to others to comment on my efforts but I can say that it makes things easier when the the band is so good it's like singing along to the records ...

last of the 'special guests' was Lloydie P - quite well-known around Cardiff from various club PAs singing over backing tracks - but once again playing with musicians of such calibre gave a boost to his performance

Mighty Dub Asante - this is the unit that provides the rhythms many of the visiting Roots artists - if you see the name on the bill you can be absolutely sure of the musicianship and vibes. Asides from the works supporting a succession of Reggae Kings each is a renowned musician in his own right:

Jahwanda on keyboards as a member of Misty In Roots; Derek on Gits as MD for Caron Wheeler; Don played bass on the last european tours by Mariah Carey and Craig David. and Drumtan once played with Roots & Branches ... but seriously, Drums' musical pedigree is worthy of a whole website in itself - this year alone he's played for The Wailers, Black Uhuru and Julian Marley ... I know I'm biased but I say that my man deserves some recognition & respect in his home town & country - if nothing else I'm happy and even proud to be doing something about that ... also mustn't forget engineer Gravel on the mixer board - who came with the dubwise touch in all the right places ... and once again, nice, easygoing people ...

Moving on to the main event ... well I'm not even going to write a review of the show - I'll leave that to someone else ... but once again he played a full 2 hours near-perfect performance ... all of you who missed Johnny Clarke live really missed something ... don't sleep on it the next time around

Johnny is a warm, upfull man - with very little evidence of ego or attitudes - his voice, presence and stamina on stage are really remarkable ...

the Steve Barrow quote above and elsewhere refers to Johnny's relative lack of international success compared to Dennis & Gregory - without wishing to sound crude - where are they now? - it seems it could have been a blessing for JC to be relatively undiscovered and unspoilt?

final words as he left the hotel ... "yeah man, we must come back and carry this forward, for the works are not yet complete"


and finally from me for now - a sincere thanks to all of the people who came out to pay living respects to a great artist and support Roots & Branches - I even got to meet a couple of RW members there.


Roots & Branches .... more to come ,,,,

This was taken from The Reggae Wales WebSite...

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